Why This Website Exists

Hello, and welcome! I'm SEILA — an art nerd living in Tokyo, Japan.

Let me tell you how this website came to be.

Until just before I started elementary school in Japan, I lived in Manila, in the Philippines. Even to me as a child, the Philippines was a country with a kind of richness quite unlike Japan's.

Residential streets shaped by Spanish and American influence. Ordinary households that still had a helper; a pool in a private garden, or one shared among neighbors. There was a certain glamour to it, a certain ease.

At the same time, the gap between the beautiful parts of a city and the parts that weren't ran deep. Even as a child, I sensed — not in words, but somewhere in my skin — that this country carried real economic hardship.

As an adult, meeting people of many different generations, I began to notice something. The Philippines is often spoken about through a very narrow set of negative images. Each time it happened, a small unease settled somewhere in my chest.

Of course, that too is part of the truth. And yet — the beautiful, abundant Philippines I know is just as real, and it exists too.

That same unease followed me into the art world.

Consider that even by data from four or five years ago: according to a report by the art market research firm Artprice, the Philippines ranked 14th in the world in contemporary art auction sales by country for 2021–2022. This is a country producing a remarkable number of internationally recognized artists.

And yet here in Japan, where I live, information about the Philippine art market is still scarce, and almost none of these wonderful artists are known. I suspect the same is true for art lovers in other countries as well.

I started NIN.DOT to close that distance.

Not simply as an art site — I want to bring these works to you with the sensibility and culture of the Philippines carried alongside them.

SEILA

Sources: The Contemporary Art Market Report 2022 (Artprice)

According to Artprice's The Contemporary Art Market Report 2022 (covering July 2021–June 2022), the Philippines ranked 14th in the world by Contemporary art auction turnover.